So 2014 has turned into an unexpectedly big year for programming for me. As an Apple developer, it's obviously been affected by Swift's arrival, but I was already in the middle of a lot of new projects, making for a crowded learning schedule. I've sort of grouped them into different areas: scientific, functional, parallel and Mac/iOS-related.

And I'm dabbling with going back to blogging. If you find this interesting and are reading, thanks! I'll try to keep things interesting. [Read more…]

Ok, not that anyone is the wiser, but I'm finally going to rebuild my web template engine / protocol for HTML5. A relatively minor change from the XHTML protocol, but it's also a nice reason to include better handling of javascript, css, mobile devices and some better RESTful methods. Since I'm steeped in Python lately, I'll probably make an engine in that for now, followed by Ruby and F-Script and whatever else strikes me.

But more importantly, I have changes I've been putting off for forever to most of my domains. For one thing, I have to reorganize what domains are doing what. I want to overhaul the OS X Page. I'm still not sure exactly what I want to do with it, so suggestions welcome. I also own CocoaDevWorld and iPhoneDev. I have a Code section to this blog that perhaps should be in one of those other places. And the OS X Apps list? The old version is essentially in archive mode, but there is reason to have an alternate non-MAS listing out there. I don't foresee a MAS-only Mac OS on the horizon (or, if it happens, … that would be a disaster), so there'll always be a need to know what other software is out there. [Read more…]

There are times when (a) I'd rather use a Terminal shell to search for something, or it's already where I am, and (b) when I'm in the mood to write a little set of scripts to do something neat. And so it came that I wrote a set of little scripts to keep track of my completely out-of-control PDF collection from various journals. This isn't a blog article about how you should use this tool, since your reading neuroses probably differ, but just a quick "hey, I think this is neat" and something that may inspire someone on to other cool command-line tools (or whatnot). [Read more…]

The well-received BookHabit is about to get another update. Nothing too fancy. I'm trying to keep the updates digestible and as reliable as possible. Putting too much into a point release is just asking for trouble. This one tightens up the look of the app, really improves the timeline graph and adds a few friendly features to existing screens. Some speed improvements and many squashed bugs are also part of this release. Thanks to everyone who has hit the "Send" button if they have run into something that crashed the program. It has helped make this next release much more solid. [Read more…]

I just got back from a great conference, iPhone/iPad DevCon East out in Boston. I'm completely exhausted. I have no plans to do anything this weekend excepting some hard-core reclining and the occasional stroll. I'm not just exhausted from that, I'm exhausted from both winter and all that comes with it, and from the long amount of work that led up to the app BookHabit that I finally released about a week and a half ago. More about that in an upcoming post.

But the weather is taking a turn for the better, chilly and rainy as today might be, and I can sense spring is actually going to happen this time. There was a weather tease a few weeks back, but I knew it was only foreshadowing. At any rate, I declare spring. I can refresh my todo lists, recalibrate my goals, rearrange my office, etc. [Read more…]

I just wanted document somewhere on the internet unprefixed object names in the Objective-C runtime that could potentially trip you up. I'm just talking about capitalized words, not C keywords, and I'm not talking about anything already given a namespace prefix like the NS* types.

There are un-prefixed, capitalized type names lurking in the runtime. [Read more…]

Despite running a(n obscure) Mac app listing site for years, I've actually been hoping Apple would eventually create their own central, built-in way to find and obtain Mac apps. When iOS devices got one, it seemed like it was inevitable. They've had the pieces in place for a while now, just going unused. 90 days from now, the Mac ecosystem changes completely. So many questions, possibilities, worries.

One indication that Apple should do something came years ago when I went around asking Mac owners how they found new software for the Mac. Did they go to VersionTracker, MacUpate, lesser-known sites (I had hopes)? The answer: they never heard of any of these sites. Only a minority of Mac users that I talked to had anything other than what came on their computer, with the possible exception of Office or Photoshop. Other people thought that all you could buy for Macs was the few items found in the Apple store (or before that, reseller shops). [Read more…]